![]() |
Large Medium Small |
ZHENGZHOU: The advantage of low costs for Chinese products is eroding as employers on the Chinese mainland suffer a shortage of labor, which, in turn, is compelling businesses to resort to technical upgrading for survival and development.
Human resources officials say a job fair last week in Shangqiu, a major supplier of migrant workers, in central China's Henan province, attracted 158 enterprises from outside the province, needing to recruit 32,000 people. In comparison, 32 enterprises from outside offered 11,000 positions at the fair at the same period of last year.
Migrant workers have contributed significantly to China's economic boom over the past three decades and number around 200 million nationwide.
Mo Rong, deputy head of the research institute for labor science under the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said a survey conducted by the ministry found 62 percent of migrant workers questioned said they would return to work after the Lunar New Year holiday (February 13-19), during which most migrant workers usually returned home. Thirty percent of the surveyed hesitated on whether leave home or not.
Data provided by the human resources market in eastern China's Zhejiang province, showed that in the first week after the Lunar New Year holiday, 408,600 jobs were offered, up 19.1 percent on the same period last year. But registered job-seekers numbered 106,800, down 27.9 percent.
The Zhejiang survey team under the National Bureau of Statistics found 52 percent of enterprises in the province, with orders in hand, found it hard to recruit workers after the Lunar New Year holiday.
|
"These conditions are relatively liberal in Shaoxing, but we still found it difficult for recruit enough workers," he said.
Fu Furong, head of municipal trade union of Quanzhou, eastern China's Fujian province, said the city would see a labor shortage of 153,000 people this year, mainly in the clothing, headwear and footwear, ceramics, resin and food processing sectors.
In Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong province, the center of the nation's export base, the shortage is estimated at 150,000 this year, mainly for processing and manufacturing as well as modern and traditional services sectors. The annual shortage for Dongguan, also a leading exporter on the Pearl River Delta, is forecast at 200,000.
Meanwhile, Henan province, a leading supplier of migrant workers, saw its annual labor increase at 1.1 million in 2009, down from 2 million in 2007 and 1.8 million in 2008.